The Sentence

A Movie Screening with remarks from Director Rudy Valdez, brother of Cindy Shank

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THE SENTENCE draws from hundreds of hours of footage to tell the story of Cindy Shank, a woman who received a 15-year mandatory sentence for conspiracy charges related to crimes committed by her deceased ex-boyfriend — something known informally as “the girlfriend problem.” Cindy’s brother Rudy Valdez’ s method of coping with this tragedy is to film his sister’s three young children for her, both the everyday details and the milestones — moments Cindy herself can no longer share in. Whether the family’s fight for Cindy’s release will allow her to break free of her draconian sentence becomes the aching question at the core of this deeply personal portrait of a family in crisis.

Courtesy of HBO Documentary Films.

Made possible with the support of the Concannon Family Foundation and FAMM.